Ookami-san lifted her head, eyes blazing. “I am a wild god. I do not go home with—“
Takeda held up his hands. “Just a lost hiker. And… you dropped your rice ball.” Ookami-san wa Taberaretai
It was impossibly soft. She flinched, then leaned into his palm, and a sound escaped her—a whimper so small and lonely that it cracked something in his chest. Ookami-san lifted her head, eyes blazing
“No doubt.”
“Ookami-san,” Takeda said, turning to her with that quiet, unassuming smile. “Will you let me feed you for the rest of your immortal life?” “Just a lost hiker
Her golden eyes studied him. “No. There isn’t.” Winter came early that year. The first snow buried the path, and the village council warned Takeda not to climb the mountain alone. But he thought of her ears drooping in the cold, her tail tucked between her legs for warmth, and he went anyway.